At a Cost
by Satsukimochi
Summary: The Red of their eyes would cost them something. They weren't sure why, and they weren't sure when. They didn't know until one of them had to pay the price for it. "Can you see me?" "Of course I can." "Then turn to face me, so you can look at me- you can't... can you?"
1. Clouded Eyes

Yo! I'm posting a new story and updating that other fic (Medicine) tomorrow! I'LL DO MY BEST WITH MYSTERY and try some tragedy

Also its Kido's birthday! u v u!

Enjoy reading!

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Usual morning activities in the Mekakushi Dan's lair was abruptly halted by the loud clanking of pots and pans against the hard, wooden floor. Everyone's heads turned towards Kano who simply stared expressionlessly at the cooking equipment on the floor. "Hey, Kano, are you okay?" Kido asked, first, breaking the silence that filled the place.

The corner's of Kano's mouth suddenly turned up, and he cracked into a very wide grin. "My bad! Everything's fine now!" and after a few long stares cast towards him, everyone reverted back to their usual activities. Kano's grin was still pasted on his face, and he did not move an inch. And it was like this for a while more, his grin never faltering.

"Kano, could you at least pick up those pots and pans you dropped? I need to wash them now." Kido said, irritated by the fact that her childhood friend had not even budged, or said a word ever since he waved away the expressions of concern. "Kano?"

"O-Oh, right, yes, leader!" Kano responded, sounding slightly dazed, as if being knocked out of a trance. _Hm? His voice didn't exactly sound... like his usual self though... _Kido noted, now switching her gaze and attention towards the blond male.

Kano, very carefully, almost _too _carefully and slowly, bent down, his hands moving slightly around him, as if to check his surroundings. When he had reached the floor, he began to feel around the wood, for the pots and pans. This had worried Kido, greatly. "Hey, Kano the pots and pans are right there-"

"W-Where?" Kano's voice rose in worry and fright. His eyes had gone very wide, and they didn't move to look at Kido as she talked. His eyes briefly flickered from red, to yellow, back to red, and then to a pale, milky yellow. Kido also noticed that his body had been trembling ever so slightly.

_Something's wrong- something is wrong. _"Kano, can you see me?" At the corner of her eye, Kido could see the other members slowly taking notice of the problem, though they all remained silent, staring intently at the scene before them, staring at Kido, awaiting her confirmation before they could do anything.

"Of course I can."

"Then turn to face me, so you can look at me."

Kano fell silent, his happy grin fading. He began to tremble more, and this time it was visible. Kido bit her lips, unable to process that _this _was happening to him. "You can't... can you?" she said, her voice quavering. No response. "Kisaragi, help him to the living room, or somewhere that he can just lie down and not do anything. Someone call Seto, and tell him what's happening."

* * *

Seto had arrived as soon as he possibly could, after giving a long apology to his manager for the sudden leave. He came rushing through the doorway, carrying a simple cane, sprinting towards Kano's bedroom, where he had been now relocated to. Though it had been rude not to greet the others who had been waiting in the living room, his body only moved towards the bedroom. "Kano...!"

Kano had his eyes wide open, and laid still on his bed, turned over to one side, looking away from the door. The bright afternoon light shone through the windows, lighting up the room, despite the dark atmosphere. Kido silently followed Seto into the room, quietly closing the door behind her. "We still haven't gotten a clue as to how it happened. We asked him, and he doesn't know what happened either."

"And it just happened _that _quickly?" Seto asked in disbelief, unable to register the current event. Kido simply nodded. "So... h-he can't see? Like anything? At all?"

"Hey, y'know I'm still awake, and I'm not deaf," Kano called from the bed, shifting slowly to position himself as to roughly where he heard their voices.

Seto gave him a slight smile, though he wouldn't be able to see it. "Can you use your powers?"

"That's not actually a good topic to begin with," Kano replied back nonchalantly. Kido stepped forward, her hand raised slightly, as a result of habit to hitting Kano whenever he said something stupid or ridiculous or rude, but refrained from doing so. Instead, she lightly tugged on to Seto's sleeve, her eyes darting briefly to the door. Seto nodded, and quietly opened the door, and left the cane at the end of the bed for Kano.

* * *

"So what happens when Kano tries to use his powers?" Seto asked again, curious as to why Kano had brushed away such a topic, especially since he seemed to use his powers 24/7. Everyone (apart from Kano) had gathered around the small coffee table in the living room, all with slightly saddened expressions on their faces.

Shintarou cleared his throat awkwardly, breaking the silence that began to build up in the room. "We don't know, he doesn't want to tell us, or doesn't want to show us," he explained, glancing at Kano's bedroom. "I think I have a theory as to why this is happening, but I can't be sure just yet. I don't really want to scare all of you... uh... eye powered people."

"Onii-chan, it's fine to tell us...!" Momo insisted, but Shintarou waved away his sister's protest.

"Like I said, I can't be sure, and honestly, telling you my theory would probably haunt you for a very long time. And I don't want that to happen," Shintarou grumbled and took a sip from his can of coca cola. He cast his eyes downwards to the ground, and kept silent, seemingly immersed in a train of thoughts in his mind. The look in his eyes worsened every half a minute.

"I think Kenjirou's place might have some kind of research or information about this kind of problem." Kido said, after a while.

"Y-You mean my teacher!?" Momo shrieked.

"You mean Ayano's father!?" Both Seto and Shintarou yelled at the same time, but paused before they could say any more, exchanging wide eyed glances with each other, staring in disbelief at one another as to what they had both just said- but saved the explanation for another day.

"Yeah... him. We could break into the house and just get the necessary info we need and-" before Kido could finish her sentence, an ear-piercing shriek cut her off, turning everyone's face immediately to expressions of fright, worry, and shock. And when the first shriek had died down, it didn't stop. It kept on going and going, cut off by loud, heavy gasps for air.

And Kido didn't need to think twice about going to help that person.

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First chapter finished! I hope it was fine u _ u;;;

Thank you very much for reading up to this point of the page!


	2. Deafened Listening

Ah, I was going to upload the 2nd Chapter earlier, but then chrome crashed, and so all the stuff I wrote disappeared and wasn't saved _(:''''' JL)_

Anyways enjoy this chapter! ^ q ^

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Seto watched Kido's figure leap up from the couch, running towards what seemed to be like Kano's room. Unusually, it had taken longer for Seto to recognize and hear the bloodcurdling screams coming from the room. _Hmm? Is my hearing a bit off? _He wondered, and began to follow the other members as they proceeded to Kano's room.

Seto looked over his friends crowding around at the doorway, his eyes widening immediately as he registered the sight in front of him. He saw Kido, resting Kano's head on her lap, his hands grasping tighter on to Kido's whenever he winced, or screamed. Kano's face was pallid, covered in sweat, soaking the dark material of Kido's pants. His pale eyes were wide in fear and pain.

"Ka... no..." and finally, Seto's body began to move towards his two childhood friends, and the members who stood in front of him parted like the red sea as Seto made his way through. He briefly exchanged eye contact with Kido, before turning to Kano. "Kano, what's wrong? What happened?" But Kano didn't say anything, neither did he look at either of them. The only thing that could be heard was uneven breathing. "Kano?"

Kano finally turned to Seto, managing a slight smirk, already making Seto sigh. "What is it?" Kido asked, impatiently, and in return, Seto pointed to his eyes.

"Hey, uh... Seto, I don't think-" Shintarou began from the back, making everyone turn to look at him. Shintarou opened his mouth to continue, but stopped himself, shaking his head, and looked down at the floor. And on that note, Seto turned back to Kano, propping him up in an easier position to look at on Kido's lap. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes- then opening them, to be greeted with a range of different voice going through his head, despite no one opening their mouths.

_I guess it still works. _"Alright, Kano- I want you to look at me." Seto said. And the sickly boy did exactly that, at least tried to, but still managed to get within looking range.

Everything fell silent, the only thing Seto could hear and see was Kano's mind:

* * *

_"So what happens when Kano uses his powers?" _

_Seto could hear his own voice, slightly muffled from behind the door. He turned to Kano, who remained as exactly as how he was like when they had all left him to rest in his room. Kano tossed and turned, and sometimes laughed dryly. "Sure is boring when you can't see anything..." Kano grumbled, slowly propping himself up against the wall near his bed. _

_Kano sat there, for a while, silently, as the rest of the gang was outside discussing Kano's condition. "Ah, right, my powers... hmm..." And Seto watched Kano shut his eyes closed, concentrating hard, probably trying to get to use his power. "Why... can't I-" and suddenly, Kano was cut off by his own cry of pain, his hand flying his eyes, gripping the skin around it, as if to prevent the pain he was feeling. _

_Kano opened his mouth to scream, and just as he did, all sound was suddenly cut off. Seto could only see Kano soundlessly trash around and cry. _

_"What happened to the-" but much to Seto's surprise, he couldn't even hear himself talk. And that was when Seto had felt a creeping pain at his eyes, stinging especially at where roughly the irises would be at. His breaths, or as he thought, got more uneven, and his eyes began to feel like they were on fire. Seto felt himself scream in Kano's mind._

_And then suddenly everything went blank._

* * *

When Seto awoke, he found Mary sleeping on the chair next to him, her hand was holding his tightly, and her head was resting on a small spot on the bed next to his body. _Wait the bed? _Seto immediately got up, propping himself up against the pillow. His sudden movement had quickly awoken Mary, causing her stir and groggily rub her red rimmed eyes. She brightened up immediately, and had a big smile pasted on her face.

Seto watched Mary's mouth move to open, and when he had expected a voice to come out by then, nothing could be heard. He stared in disbelief at Mary, and prayed the next time she'd open her mouth to speak, he could hear her voice. But when she did, nothing came out. Her face fell, and tears began to slowly form at the corner of her eyes.

She opened her mouth again to say what looked like his name, her eyes shimmering with slight hope as she expected an answer from him, but Seto couldn't reply. He couldn't hear anything. He opened his mouth, and hoped his voice found his way out of his throat, and managed a weak, uneven, "I can't hear."

At that moment, Mary instantaneously got up from her seat, and ran out to the living room. Seto watched as the others soon came flooding in, with Mary being coaxed by Momo, tears streaming down her cheeks. Shintarou had a look of shock, and fright on his face, the moment he laid his eyes on Seto, and quickly walked out of the room, seemingly shouting at Momo to follow him. _Shintarou-san? _

Kano walked in unsteadily as soon as Shintarou pushed past him and left the room, smiling brightly, though that smile seemed to falter slightly when Kido had turned to him to possibly explain Seto's problem. "What is going on?" Seto asked nervously, though he probably was sure that didn't come out quite right, according to the looks on Kano's, Kido's, Momo's and Hibiya's faces.

Momo opened her mouth to speak, but then face palmed herself after remembering about Seto's condition. She hastily pulled out her phone, and began jabbing her thumbs at the touch screen glass. Just as she finished and handed the phone over to Seto, Shintarou had walked back in, attempting to pull his sister out of the room (but to no avail due to his near non-existent strength). Seto glanced down at the phone, and quickly read the message displayed on the screen:

"Because Kenjirou-san seems to have the necessary information for what's going on, we're going to break into his house later and take what we need. We were deciding who should go for that just now. My brother had a theory that he's stupidly paranoid about, and thinks is real and happening."

Seto looked back up to find Shintarou leaning against the wall, with a look of defeat on his face, whilst Momo smiled triumphantly. He glanced down at the phone, and began typing in the words he wanted to say.

"What theory?"

* * *

Umm I didn't want to introduce the whole Kenjirou involvement thing in the second chapter yet because I feel like it'd be too rushed?

(But yet again another member falling 'victim' to loss of senses is also a bit rushed for just the second chapter only (sorry Seto ;; v ;; ))

Thank you for reading up to this point of the chapter! m(_ _)m


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